


Tell Me About Unions

by circlejourney



Category: MapleStory
Genre: F/F, Fluff, I'm the only person ever to ship this, Player Character/Non-Player Character, Teasing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:07:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28208802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/circlejourney/pseuds/circlejourney
Summary: The day Iridium leaves the Savage Terminal, she trips down a flight of floating stairs--only to be saved from an undignified death by a dashing lady in a dragon skull helm. Half a bungled conversation later, she flees to save herself the embarrassment.Agreatstart to her adventure, and now the image of that woman, smirking at her misery, has lodged itself firmly in her head. Who is she, anyway?
Relationships: Dame Appropriation/Cadena
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This entire story is just me going, "this character looks hot--I ship her with my PC now."

When Maroon catches a flash of orange hair out the corner of his eye, he moves to the counter on the double. “Cadena, back so soon!” he exclaims.

“You know it,” Cadena replies with a lopsided grin as she saunters in, slapping a thousand mesos on the countertop. “Could I get two packs of unagi, two vials of sunset dew…”

The Pantheon supplies shop is the pride and joy of Maroon, Harpoon and Karin, the terrible trio as General Pitas likes to call them. Potions, weapons, pet food—you want it, they've got it! This shop, humble as it is, is the bearer of many a dubious honour including the patronage of one of the most famous black market merchants in Grandis.

Well, "black market merchant" is rather unfair; the woman has become known to the Pantheon residents as a bit of a hero, doing work behind the scenes on the Heliseum warground. All considered, it's not strange that she's going through the legal channels of commerce.

What  _ are  _ strange are the orders she has been placing lately.

“Actually, throw in two sundaes this time, will ya?”

“Sundaes? That’s new. What’re these for?” He is already sorting through his shelves for supplies.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she answers.

Maroon is no stranger to unusual orders. Adventurers will come in here asking for a hundred wheels of their most pungent cheese and cram it all into their magic packs. Cadena’s purchases are not like those. They're eclectic, and specific, and can't possibly be training rations.

But she always has some glib way of brushing off his questions, so the shopkeeper doesn't push it. If this is shadow merchant business, then he knows better than to pry. But the woman doesn't seem to care to conduct these transactions in secrecy.

And, sundaes? What could the people in the back alleys possibly want to do with  _ sundaes? _

All it takes to begin unravelling this mystery is a chat with the regulars. To Maroon's surprise, all of them have also noticed her about the Pantheon marketplace.

“She never used to come back to town so much.” “I saw her walking down the market street.” “Thought I saw her hanging out outside the park.” “She was carrying a full platter and all. Did she buy that from you?”

“Uh, I saw Cadena on the call rune today. I guess she was summoning one of  _ those  _ vendors. Why?”

That last thing comes straight from the mouth of his little sister Karin, right as she's returning from her errands with the Heliseum wholesalers.

“An interdimensional merchant?” mutters Maroon. Is it Cassandra the fortune teller whom she means? From what he knows, it wouldn’t be out of character for Cadena to have her fortune told regularly. But what do sunset dew and sundaes have to do with that? Perhaps some unusual augury tools?

In any case, this narrows things down. And now that he’s put this much time to investigating this mystery, he knows he won't stop short of finding the answer.

A trip to the marketplace is in order. That evening, after he has closed down the grocery store, Maroon bids Karin a rushed goodbye, packs up his things, and sneaks off to the other side of the neighbourhood.

Iridium first meets the Dame on the streets of Pantheon, and from that day, her life changes.

Freshly released from Gen’s protection into the unsuspecting world of Grandis, she's a daughter of the Savage Terminal through and through, trusting others little, spurning them much.

Of course, the world outside the Terminal is full of all the bizarre extravagances that she saw none of back at home. Of all the things she comes to dislike about it, the floating staircases are the first.

The first time she descends one, she misjudges a gap, and feels her foot slide off the white marble.

Suddenly there is nothing but the the blue-green Pantheon grass beneath her,  _ way _ too far beneath her-- " _ fucking stairs! _ " she yells, her life flashing before her eyes.

She hears a cry behind her, and then someone snatches her by the collar and hoists her back onto the step.

She flinches and shouts, “Hands off!”

“Whoa! No need for that,” says the owner of the arm. “I’m just trying to help.”

Iridium turns, only to find herself face to face with a huge dragon skull, its horns curling upward on either side of its face like fish hooks. Whatever creature it belonged to, its maw was so large that it could have bitten someone's head off.

But it's not a dragon who stands holding her by the collar, but a woman wearing its skull for a helmet. She wears an easy smirk, and if holding Iridium's entire weight is causing her any difficulty, it doesn't show.

She’s also got some ridiculously mesmerising eyes, and Iridium quickly realises she can’t look away.

“Is that real?” The words come out of her mouth long before she can process them.

This wins her a laugh. Iridium tries to wriggle out of her grip, but finds she can’t, till the lady lets go of her own accord.

She pats the right side of the skull. “Yeah, it’s real, I killed the beast myself,” she replies.

“Oh, wow, you must be strong.”

“Well, obviously, but thanks for noticing.” Something about the way she says this, with that remorselessly proud glint in her eye, makes her feel the way she does when she backflips off a rooftop.

"I mean, um, you're..." Just like that, her vocabulary has gone poof. “You are…” 

The prospect of tripping down the stairs suddenly seems infinitely less embarrassing than this. Before another word can come out, she turns and _runs_.

She doesn't stop until she is on the other side of the Great Temple, where she stumbles to a halt in the lee of the building to catch her breath.

"What the fuck happened there?" she gasps. "Who the hell is  _ she _ ?" She dusts off her clothes, cursing profusely in words that the Temple residents would cringe at. But still she sees the strange woman’s eyes in the back of her mind.


	2. Chapter 2

Iridium soon regrets not asking the woman's name before she warped off to nowhere, for when she returns to the Pantheon marketplace the next day—same place, same time—the mystery warrior is nowhere to be found.

This disappoints her more than she'd like to admit. It  _ would _ be unbelievable luck, bumping into the same person twice, but she can't just  leave without trying.

Ending her search by the same flight of stairs that almost killed her, she casts her eye about for someone to ask about the quarry of her search. It doesn't take long for the hum of the free market gate to announce an arrival, and then, not long after, the blue light surges to emit a Nova man.

“Hey!" Iridium calls out, waving till he turns. "Have you seen a woman in a dragon skull helm 'round here?”

“Oh, you don’t mean Dame Appropriation, do you?" he replies. "She’s not from here. She only comes if you call—“

“Dame Appropriation?” now Iridium’s brow furrows. “What sort of name is that?”

He shrugs. “Oh, I’m sure it’s a pseudonym, something she calls herself to sound more imposing.”

“It has the opposite effect, you know,” she mutters, but still catalogues this new information next to the mental image of the woman in her head, of her fierce eyes, her smirking visage, framed by dragon horns.

“Well, tell that to her, not me,” answers the passer-by, wings flicking in irritation. “If what you're wanting is to call her, go call her on the rune."

"The what now?"

"You new here? It's that huge seal on the market grounds, you can't miss it," he gestures halfheartedly in the general direction. "You go stand on that, say her name, step off, and wait five seconds, or a minute, or whatever. She'll show up eventually.”

“That’s a lot of instructions,” she murmurs, looking in the direction he motioned. Indeed, there in the grass, not five metres off, is a stone square, and into it is embedded a metallic seal. Now she sees why she missed it: it looks almost indistinguishable from a sewage drain cover. “Right, thanks.”

Both equally unenthusiastic in their goodbyes, they part ways. Iridium walks where she was pointed, coming to a stop on the drain cover. At the very first touch, the stone starts to hum, the metallic patterns lighting up, so rapidly she almost leaps off. “Alright, how does this go again? I want to speak to Dame Appropriation.” She pauses, feeling a little silly saying the name. “Uh, Dame Appropriation?” Is she doing it wrong? Does it need her  _ real  _ name? The man said to stand on the rune, say her name, and then step off and wait? Or was it wait, and  _ then _ step off—

She only works it out when a person materialises almost inches from her face and collides with her, one pauldron smacking her cheek.

Both tumble into a pile on the grass with a clang of metal, Iridium’s reflexes the only thing that keep her from being flattened by fifty pounds of armour and a greatsword.

Her right leg does not escape being pinned under the newcomer’s torso as she breaks her fall with one elbow. "Damn it sorry!" Iridium shouts, unable to help noticing that Dame Appropriation is almost on top of her.

Heat rushes to her face as the woman grabs her knee to stand. “That certainly was an entrance,” Dame Appropriation replies, dusting one leg.

"She's getting to be a real nuisance, huh.” Only now does Iridium notice the woman's right-hand man speaking over her shoulder as he hands her her sword. “We should head off, clearly we have nothing to do here.“

The Dame’s answering look sees him go mute. “Pancho, none of that.” Taking the sword, she turns to Iridium. “It’s you again! The one who tripped down the stairs.”

“Yeah, that...that’s me,” she says, rubbing her neck.

“We’re making a habit of falling every time we meet,” she says. “I don’t think we’ve had the pleasure of exchanging names. I’m Miss Appropriation.”

“Is that your real name? I feel ridiculous saying it,” she mutters.

“Yeah, I know, I know,” she answers. “Well,  _ I  _ like it. But you can call me by my actual name, Maki. It’s not a secret.”

“Maki, huh,” she says. “That's better than  _ Dame Appropriation _ . I’m…” she pauses. “I’m Cadena."

“Well-met, Cadena,” Maki says. “I know of you, actually.”

”You do?” Her composure drops briefly.

“You have a reputation with the Nova leaders. Roguish warrior from the Savage Terminal? They said I should keep my eye out for you.”

“How flattering.”

She nods. “But as it stands, you look too weak to start a Union.”

“E— _ Excuse _ me? ” she sputters, face burning hotter than the seat of a dragon-rider’s pants. "I'm not weak! I’ve been killing sewer rats just fine!"

“No doubt about it, but sewer rats aren't enough. I'm talking dragons, can you handle those?"

"W...well, I haven't  _ tried,  _ but…"

"Hey, it's nothing to be ashamed of, our standards are high for good reason. Just train yourself up, and you’ll be good to start a Union soon.”

”I mean, thanks, but I didn't even ask! What's this Union nonsense?"

At this, Maki raises an eyebrow. "Didn't you call me here to talk about starting a Union?"

"Uh, no? No clue what that is. Why does your Union thing need its members to be so strong?”

“I'm glad you asked!" Maki says, going full customer-service-voice. "The Union system is a programme I built from the ground up, around the core goal of matching up the strongest people of the world with its fledgling warriors, so that they may share battle experience amongst each other…”

“Skip to the part that answers my question?”

“Wow, impatient, aren't we?" She shakes her head. "You see, you are neither a fledgling warrior nor one of the strongest, so we do not quite have somewhere to place you.”

“Jeez, so many regulations for something that’s supposed to help people. I don't get it, wouldn't it be better for more people to be involved, no matter how weak or strong?”

“Yes, but we’re not exactly the Cygnus Knights,” she says. “Our coffers aren’t big enough for several million unions, so we must be judicious about who gets to join.”

“Yeah, fine, I get it,” Iridium answers. “Still." And now she puts on an exaggerated pout, folding her arms. "What makes you so sure I'm weak?”

"You're scrawny as a sack of sticks."

She bares her teeth. "Talk about judging by looks," she snaps. "I bet I could stand up to you in a fight."

Hearing these words, a grin spreads on the warrior’s face. “Oh, really? We could go toe-to-toe and find out, you know,” she answers, levering her sword over her shoulder. “How about it? You up for that?”

“I…” Swallowed by a potent pride and an even stronger need to impress this woman, she almost blurts,  _ yes _ . But she takes one glance at the dragon skull perched on the woman’s head, and decides she isn’t ready to die. She's good, but not  _ that good. _ “Not right now, but soon.”

The woman's grin doesn’t let up. “A wise choice,” she says. “Anyway...why'd you call me, if not to discuss the Union system?"

She shrugs. "Just wanted to make sure I didn't dream you up yesterday," she answers.

When Maki laughs in response, the sound makes Iridium feel odd inside. Effervescent and anxious. "You're a funny one, Cadena,” she says. “Now is there anything else I can do for you?”

“I...I’ll just go,” the thief replies. “But you bet your ass I’ll be back when I’m stronger. And  _ then  _ we can duel.”

“I will certainly bet my ass on that,” she replies, and Iridium cannot decipher if she realises how those words make her feel. “I’ll see you soon.”


End file.
